DAY 24. Gustavo Santos

Designer with graduation and specialization in International Relations, Sociology and Cultural Anthropology by Universidade Belas Artes de São Paulo (Fine Arts University of São Paulo). He develops communication projects and design for over 20 years, passing by the main design and advertising agencies of Brazil as F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Giovanni Draft FCB, Leo Burnett and G2 Brasil, working on large projects for clients such as Alpargatas, AMBEV, BAT, Bradesco, Claro, Electrolux, Embratel, FENSA, Festival Internacional de Dança (International Dance Festival), Fiat, Hospital de Câncer de Barretos (Cancer Hospital from Barretos), Instituto Ayrton Sena (Ayrton Sena Institute), Procter & Gamble, SOS Mata Atlântica, Sebrae, SOS Pantanal, Triton, Unibanco, etc. He was a member of the jury of the 2nd Minas Design Award (2º Prêmio Minas Design) sponsored by Centro Minas Design, financing agency of design from Minas Gerais Government, and a lecturer in TEDxMauá, in São Paulo.

He has published the book “Nation Branding: Construindo a imagem das Nações (Building the image of Nations),” unseen prospectus in Portuguese language on the subject and is the author of the chapter on Place Branding in a collection about Branding to be launched in 2013. He had his texts and works published and displayed in festivals and exhibitions in Brazil, Colombia, in the United States, in France, in the Netherlands and Russia.

Partner and Creative Director at Polar Studio, company of Strategic Design and researcher at isotipo.labs, research and development think tank on issues relating to Place Branding and Cultural Identity. He is a professor in courses of Place Branding discipline and is a lecturer on topics such as Place Branding, Cultural Identity and Strategic Design.

He is also a professor of Introduction to Branding in the training course in Digital Media Analyst promoted by the international NGO United Way for underprivileged youth of São Paulo and its region.

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What is your impression about a brand called Brazil?

Brazil was, for decades, the country of the future. Maybe that future has arrived. So, how to deal with this? Historically (and hypothetically) Brazil is living one of its best moments for the consolidation of its image and its multiple identities, being able to finally show something beyond the clichés and stereotypes already so established in the world’s imaginary. The idea of a hard-partying country, land of soccer and samba, where joy without a cause is the watchword, preserves a national image that, although it is true in many ways, turns out to be too generalizing, overshadowing other productive and cultural areas, innovations area, and many economic and scientific activities that we produce here. Perhaps it is because we had not solved some basic questions that, naturally, it creates some noise in our image and, consequently, in our self-image.

Without a doubt we are “the flavor of the month”, the new Eldorado. With the endless crisis and the suffocating recession in Europe and in the United States, Brazil became an extremely desired target internationally. With a huge rising middle class and a huge potential domestic consumer market being established, everyone wants to be Brazilian. They want our swing and to taste of our seasoning. But for this “seasoning” not to be, once again, the victim of an international speculation and really authentic, we, Brazilians, need to feel more like Brazilians, we need to want to be part of a very racially mixed cultural identity, what makes us unique and different among the equal.

We, Brazilians, are the great responsible for the change of our country’s image. The “Brazil brand” will only be internationally seen and absorbed away from the clichés created for us if we tell our story properly and do not repeat those that have already been counted. But, for that, we need to put the House in order, recreate a story that is true, that admires our differentiation as a society and as a culture and that makes sense for its people.

And that change will not come from above, institutionally speaking. It will not be an advertising campaign, a logo or branding project that will transform us as people or society.

As Aldir Blanc said, Brazil does not know this “Brazil” that is sold out there. We are the new Eldorado, the land of the future in the present, but we still find almost medieval realities in our continental territory. The internal discrepancy is still the great paradox of our image.

We are Giants by nature but with equally giant problems.

Change must come from within, from the hyper locations, from small actions unrelated to any official project, from the emergence of small groups of people who live and reside in this real Brazil, who want to transform their realities in an extremely creative way and far from the colorful image of a toucan.

It will not be the major international events that will change our image and, especially, our self-image, but they may work as an important window to show the world a silent transformation that happens to the four corners of the country and that transcends our beautiful beaches, our soccer and the Carnaval. This will only happen if we, Brazilians, permit.